Technical Field
The present invention relates to remote object sensing, and more particularly, systems and methods for remote object sensing by measuring the changes in the spatially inhomogeneous state of polarization of a spatially polarization-inhomogeneous light beam.
Description of the Related Art
There are several known processing systems and methods for remote object sensing. For example, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) may be utilized to determine topographic information about an object. LIDAR involves the measuring of the travel time of a beam of light to and from an object. However, LIDAR limits the feature resolution to the spot size of the light beam which results in reduced resolution as the distance to the object increases.
Optical Angular Momentum (OAM) spectroscopy has also been utilized for remote object sensing. In OAM spectroscopy, a beam of light is directed on the object of interest and the OAM spectrum that results from the subsequent light-matter interaction is measured. While OAM spectroscopy provides increased resolution as compared to LIDAR, OAM spectroscopy requires very fine and complex control of liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulators at the transmitter and/or receiver side in order to generate and measure the optical OAM spectrum. Furthermore, OAM spectra are difficult to accurately measure based on a high sensitivity to device misalignment and crosstalk. Therefore, a system and method for remote object sensing that provides accurate high-resolution, real-time feature detection would be highly advantageous.